Distress call in Budd Inlet

[Moonfish]

Speaking of being prepared- about three months back I and the wife decided to travel to her sister and brother in law's home in Wrangell about 90 miles North of Ketchikan. I had removed the RIB some time prior as one of the Weaver pads on it had separated and was under repair. So the aft was clear of the RIB exposing the Honda Git A Home OB were it needed.
We departed in total fog to the water surface and remained so for the next four hours where we were abeam of Three Island just short of Meyers Chuck. I had noticed the water temp creeping up above the normal 170 degrees then fall back. As we neared the Three Island location, still in solid fog, I decided that to venture beyond Meyers Chuck into Earnest Sound would present a situation where there is no traffic at this time of year. The concern of having a serious development caused me to cancel and begin the trip back home. As the temperature rose towards 190 degrees, I would throttle back and the temp would come back down to the 170 + area and I would increase throttle till the temp again rose. I continued this program successfully till abeam of Camano Light where the temp was about pegged out between 190 and 200+. At this point I shut down and heard water rushing. inspection found the exhaust hose had blown off the fiberglass exit pipe and as the boat swayed in 2 1/2 swells allowed water to gush in. With the main beige pump working and the remainder on auto setting I proceeded to return the exhaust hose on with one of the two clamps and then put my attention on starting the Git a Home Honda. As stood on the swim step the thought hit me that were the RIB in place I would have to lower it and then release it to allow the OB to be rotated into place and dropped for running. Now comes the real deal. Were I to have dropped the RIB down, it would be attached to the swim step by the Weaver locks which on our boat require weight in the RIB to provide position to allow the slides to be moved and the RIB released. Please picture the occupant standing in the RIB with 2 1'2 foot swells moving up and over the swim step as the boat is dead in the water. One's balance is precarious at best and the thought of releasing the RIB, lousy balance and BINGO, you are loose from the mother ship even with the RIB tied off, a very precarious situation.
Having thought that out and planning for future voyages involving open water or anticipated weather, I am of the thought of releasing the RIB in calm waters anticipating the need, towing the RIB with its small OB for the duration of that segment of travel.
Back to the situation in hand, now I have swung the Git-A-Home Honda around and deployed it down and ready for start. Two pulls on the starter rope and the rope remained out!!! So now I am in deep tapioca and still in the fog.
With in minutes of all of this, the fog began to dissipate and out of it in direct line with us, was a gillnetter heading for Ketchikan, I was able to contact him and obtained a very well spent $100 bill as a thank you (No he did not as most, expect any payment)
On top of that, I almost felt like putting on water skies on the tow, He pulled our boat faster than we run!
All ended well, the thought we blew a head gasket that allowed for the over heating was nil, it was scale build up in the cast iron exhaust header that blocked off the overboard water hose, allowing the hose to blow off due heat expansion.
All ended up well and safe, but that RIB stowed on the swim step deserves a emergency plan for sure or the test of towing it when felt it should be. Time will tell.

Regards,
Al-Ketchikan

Wow, Al! Glad everything worked out on that little adventure!

 

[psneeld]

Years back.... some rafts when serviced found out that their liferaft was stolen at the last servicing and the container filled with stuff to make it seem like a raft inside.


The USCG also years ago had a dismal rate of failure of survival gear in even real situation...and that gear was carefully selected for performance and serviced regularly.


Though in all my 20 years of USCG flying, amazingly enough I never really head of too many complaints about recreational survival gear including liferafts.


The 8 minutes to sinking I am skeptical of....it may be from the time the USCG was notified....not necessarily the beginning of the incident.


Many boating emergencies I have dealt with have been going on for awhile till the USCG even gets notified/involved.

 

[Portage_Bay]

What do you guys put into a ditch bag? If you put your wallet, credit cards, cash. etc, then any time you need those things they have to be removed and then replaced. And where do most people keep them? Just curious.

I use the ditch bag for life saving emergency gear. Wallet etc don't go in there. Maybe some cash.

The minimum contents for my ditch bag:

• EPIRB or PLB if the EPRIB is mounted in a hydrostatic bracket.
• Hand held VHF
• Hand held GPS
• Flares, pyrotechnic or electronic
• Flashlight and batteries
• Sound signaling device
• First aid kit if the raft pack doesn't have one
• PFDs, I may have to leave the big boat in a real hurry
• Some poly line
• Knife

Things I keep handy to grab on the way to get the ditch bag:

• inReach device. Gives me another way to yell for help as well as satellite comms. It's not in the ditch bag because it's always on the dash, turned on, tracking me. I have an emergency contact ashore who can look at the track and know where I am if I'm in trouble.
• Binos
• Wallet with credit cards etc
• Some clothing that is weather dependent

Reminds me a story, told and re-told while I was at Chapman's.
Man had his auto-launch raft serviced, they delivered to the dock.
He told them to toss it into the water. It sank, did not inflate.
They retrieved it and offered to repack it for free.

It shouldn't sink. But I don't think it should inflate on contact with water. In my experience the auto release on the life raft is a hydrostatic release that trips at depth and releases the raft. The raft floats to the surface, the boat sinks, the painter is pulled and trips the inflation mechanism.

I can quickly launch my dingy. It's on weaver tip up davits on the swim step, motor and fuel tank in the dingy. The winch is a standard winch loaded with line not wire. Yes, it's harder to use in normal use. But in an emergency cut the line, the dingy flops in the water.

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

Yeah launching the dinghy is a non-starter. Why? A while back, while researching safety gear for my own boat, I uncovered a stat that caught my eye:

A recreational vessel in trouble takes an average of 8 minutes to sink after either impact, crew noticing water intrusion, etc. (for the life of me I can't recall the source so don't ask).

Begs the questions:

Who could launch their dinghy in 8 minutes?

Who could even find the remote to lower their dinghy in 8 minutes?

This assumes the vessel is remaining horizontal during the sinking process.

Spend the money. It's your life after all.

My dink is on the swim platform hung by steel cables. I have cable cutters to cut the cables.

It should be, they all do not work as expected, the ones I recall had a lanyard attached to the boat which started the process, and then allowed a manual deployment if auto failed.
The one that sank without deploying, that would be funny to watch the looks.

My raft has a line you tie off on the boat. Throw it in the water, pull the line and it inflates.

I use the ditch bag for life saving emergency gear. Wallet etc don't go in there. Maybe some cash.

The minimum contents for my ditch bag:

• EPIRB or PLB if the EPRIB is mounted in a hydrostatic bracket.
• Hand held VHF
• Hand held GPS
• Flares, pyrotechnic or electronic
• Flashlight and batteries
• Sound signaling device
• First aid kit if the raft pack doesn't have one
• PFDs, I may have to leave the big boat in a real hurry
• Some poly line
• Knife

Things I keep handy to grab on the way to get the ditch bag:

• inReach device. Gives me another way to yell for help as well as satellite comms. It's not in the ditch bag because it's always on the dash, turned on, tracking me. I have an emergency contact ashore who can look at the track and know where I am if I'm in trouble.
• Binos
• Wallet with credit cards etc
• Some clothing that is weather dependent

It shouldn't sink. But I don't think it should inflate on contact with water. In my experience the auto release on the life raft is a hydrostatic release that trips at depth and releases the raft. The raft floats to the surface, the boat sinks, the painter is pulled and trips the inflation mechanism.

I can quickly launch my dingy. It's on weaver tip up davits on the swim step, motor and fuel tank in the dingy. The winch is a standard winch loaded with line not wire. Yes, it's harder to use in normal use. But in an emergency cut the line, the dingy flops in the water.

Some of the above is in our ditch bag which we keep on the fly bridge. We also have Gumby suits (Cold emersion suits) and they have PLBs attached to each one. So I have multiple ways to get off the boat if needed.

 

[OldDan1943]

a knife? Becareful, NO pointy knives in the raft.

Might consider MREs incase you get hungry.
Fresh water.

Plus all the stuff mentioned above.

If I recall correctly, it may take a bit of time for the auto release to function.

 

[Alaskaflyer]

a knife? Becareful, NO pointy knives in the raft.

Might consider MREs incase you get hungry.
Fresh water.

Plus all the stuff mentioned above.

If I recall correctly, it may take a bit of time for the auto release to function.

The USCG standard for raft hydrostatic release is a range of between 5 to 15 feet in depth.

People can survive for a long time without food. However, my ditch bag, and my survival kit in my plane when I had it in Alaska, contained some potable water.

 

[Portage_Bay]

I once tested an expired hydrostatic release. Tied it to a line with another bit of line and a weight on the release side. When I lowered it to the trip depth I felt the weight drop as soon as it hit depth. Gave me confidence in the mechanism.

The knife serves a good purpose. If the painter doesn't release from the mother ship because it's tangled or for any other reason I can cut myself free. That carries over to the dingy as well.

What concerns me more than sinking with respect to the need for speed is fire. Unless I've torn a huge hole in the bottom it will take some time for the boat to sink. I have an older boat. Lots of wood structure exposed in the engine room. Plywood decks interior. Glass over ply house and exterior decks. Lots to burn. In the event of an engine room fire if the fixed auto bottle doesn't put it out I'm not going in there.

In either event I'll launch raft and or dingy as soon as I determine sinking or burning is not stoppable. I won't leave the mother ship until it sinks from under me or the smoke and flames drive me off.

 

[Al]

Wow, Al! Glad everything worked out on that little adventure!

Thanks Moonfish
- In response to a couple of comments on having a more readily accessible dingy or raft, I have re-mounted on the top of the house railing, our 7 foot inflatable. This is held by one cord secured to two locations, where one swipe of the knife will allow the raft to be thrown overboard. Oars included.
The RIB will remain on the swim step with the dismount thoughts of towing when safety conditions dictate and one stubborn sailor allows common sense to prevail.

Al-Ketchikan

 

[Marco Flamingo]

I had a valise life raft on a prior boat like this one. Mine was a little nicer and a little more expensive, but I sold it with the boat. I felt it was required because the dinghy was kept strapped down in chocks on the cabin top (two people and 10 minutes to deploy). My present boat has an inflatable on the swim step with Weaver davits. I pull it up with a 2:1 snatch block similar to this one. It makes for easy one person launch and retrieval. But the important part to me was the snap shackle head. It now has a lanyard on it. Yank on that and the dinghy flops down instantly. I wish that the Weaver davits were as easy to slip off. They tend to be tricky in anything other than flat water.

 

[OldDan1943]

Hmmm, if I go with a Pudgy or a Bulldog, I can sell my current auto-launch and reclaim space on the upper deck.